File:Messier61 - ESO - Potw2231a.jpg
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Summary
[edit]DescriptionMessier61 - ESO - Potw2231a.jpg |
English: The golden era to study stellar births
This week, we feature an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4303, also known as Messier 61, which is one of the largest galactic members of the Virgo Cluster. Being a so-called starburst galaxy, it has an unusually high amount of stars being born, and has been used by astronomers as a laboratory to better understand the fascinating phenomena of star formation. Stars form when clouds of cold gas collapse. The energetic radiation from newly born stars will heat and ionise the surrounding remaining gas. The ionised gas will shine, acting as a beacon of ongoing star formation. In this stunning and jewel-like image, this glowing gas can be seen as the whirlpool of gold: the direct traces of stars being born. The golden glow is a result of combining observations taken at different wavelengths of light with the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile. Here gas clouds of ionised oxygen, hydrogen and sulphur are shown in blue, green and red, respectively. The observations are done as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project, aiming to reveal nearby galaxies across all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Are you curious about how one goes from observations to an image like this one? Check out this ESO blog post that goes into it in more detail of the process. Credit: ESO/PHANGS
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Date | Release date: 1 August 2022, 06:00 |
Source | https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2231a/ |
Author |
Credit: G. Hüdepohl (atacamaphoto.com)/ESO |
Licensing
[edit]This media was created by the European Southern Observatory (ESO).
Their website states: "Unless specifically noted, the images, videos, and music distributed on the public ESO website, along with the texts of press releases, announcements, pictures of the week, blog posts and captions, are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided the credit is clear and visible." To the uploader: You must provide a link (URL) to the original file and the authorship information if available. | |
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.
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current | 21:46, 1 August 2022 | 885 × 880 (274 KB) | Fabian RRRR (talk | contribs) | == {{int:filedesc}} == {{Information |description={{en|1=''The golden era to study stellar births This week, we feature an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4303, also known as Messier 61, which is one of the largest galactic members of the Virgo Cluster. Being a so-called starburst galaxy, it has an unusually high amount of stars being born, and has been used by astronomers as a laboratory to better understand the fascinating phenomena of star formation. Stars form when clouds of cold gas col... |
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Credit/Provider | ESO/PHANGS |
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Source | European Southern Observatory |
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Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 1 August 2022 |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop 22.4 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 16:26, 1 June 2021 |
Date and time of digitizing | 16:37, 1 June 2021 |
Date metadata was last modified | 18:26, 1 June 2021 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:039851d0-0005-1d4a-8e06-75762596d4b8 |
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Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, None, D-85748 Germany |
IIM version | 4 |